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56 Lansing-area employers to add 1,300 jobs in 2017

A construction worker is seen at the site of MSUFCU's headquarter's expansion. About 50 employers in the Lansing area will be hiring up to 1,300 people in the next year in construction and manufacturing jobs.(Photo: Dave Wasinger/Lansing State Journal)

LANSING - By the end of September 2017, 56 businesses in Greater Lansing are expected to fill roughly 1,300 job openings.

The challenge? Most workers need to be trained for the jobs that will be available in manufacturing, construction and information technology.

Capital Area Michigan Works! landed a $2.28 million grant to reimburse those employers for those costs. It's enough to cover the training of 3,000 new and current employees.

"It's important because we want to keep our companies here," said Edythe Hatter-Williams, CEO of Capital Area Michigan Works!. When the organization can "provide additional support so the labor force remains competitive so that the company can remain competitive, it helps keep them here and keeps jobs here."

As of October, the jobless rate in Greater Lansing, which include Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties, was 3.6%, according to the most recent data from the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget. It was an increase of 0.3% from September, bringing the total of unemployed people up to 9,000. In addition, General Motors will be laying off up to 839 workers in January at its Lansing Grand River Plant due to a decline in sales of the Chevrolet Camaro.

Some of the businesses that will be training employees include Liquid Web, Granger Construction, Capital Steel & Wire and AgroLiquid, Hatter Williams said.

Liquid Web is an IT company that hosts websites for clients. This is the first year it is participating in the program, which will pay for cyber security and Linux training onsite and at Lansing Community College, said Cale Sauter, company spokesman.

Both new and existing employees will be trained, but it is too early to tell how many people that will be, Sauter said.

"It's not always easy to find qualified people, because maybe they were trained in a different segment of IT," he said. "We're trying to build a more robust training program and we are looking for opportunities to improve."

Alexander Alusheff is a reporter at the Lansing State Journal. Contact him at (517) 377-1096 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.